Shedding light on the crisis of women behind bars
Donate
The Women Behind Bars Project is proud to be a sponsored project of the Center for Social Justice, a not-for-profit umbrella organization based in Seattle, Washington. All contributions to the Women Behind Bars Project/Center for Social Justice are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
The Women Behind Bars Project wants to be able to respond promptly to requests for information, resources, books to prisoners, and speaking engagements. We're already doing a lot with very little, but we need your help.
Even the smallest donation makes a difference toward keeping all of that going, as well as toward keeping this site updated and as resource-laden as we can make it. Whenever and wherever possible, the Women Behind Bars Project also pairs journalist Talvi with former prisoners, family members of the incarcerated, attorneys, journalists, in tandem with representatives of national social justice and civil rights organizations; Native/First Nations groups and tribal government; city/county government; health and human service organizations; and corrections/law enforcement organizations.
Please consider a donation of $36, which pays for three hours of intensive labor for a (very hard-working) project assistant. Or, if you're interested in volunteering (or pursuing an internship), please contact us.
Sponsor
From its inception in winter 2007, the Women Behind Bars Project has been fortunate to have the gracious financial support of forward-thinking, individual donors and foundations. Because of those donations, the WBB Project could arrange speaking engagements and benefit events in Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco Bay Area, Minnesota, Tucson (AZ), New York City, and numerous parts of the Pacific Northwest. (Upcoming events in Fall/Winter 2008 include Seattle, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.)
Associated readings, lectures, panels, radio interviews and print articles, as well as benefit events for community-based groups, have directly brought about increased attention to the many facets and consequences of large-scale female incarceration. Particular emphasis for 2009 will be on outreach to rural areas of the country with high rates of arrest/sentencing of girls and women, with an eye toward conducting workshops and discussions within juvenile facilities, jails, and prisons (with prisoners and correctional staff alike). Please consider becoming a sponsor of these efforts with a gift of $500 or more, or by providing much-needed office space or (Mac OS X-compatible) computer equipment.
Do you want to help support multifaceted, non-partisan, community-oriented discussions related to gender and the criminal justice system? Are you concerned about patterns of arrest and incarceration as they relate to mental illness, poverty, the drug war, illiteracy, abuse, trauma, as well as racial profiling and sentencing disparities? If you are considering an individual or foundation grant to the WBB Project, please contact Karen Toering at karenatseattle@yahoo.com.
We would like to extend particular thanks to our 2007-2008 sponsors and major supporters:
Shaula Massena
The Hellman Foundation
The Finlandia Foundation
Hedgebrook
Center for Social Justice
Drug Policy Alliance
Take Action
Please check this section for periodic updates about national or regional events, volunteer opportunities, or other urgent information on issues related to girls and women in the criminal justice system.
While we welcome information about events and opportunities via email, please note that we will not post any politically partisan, election, or campaign-related information.
To contact the Women Behind Bars Project, please send an email to womenbehindbars@gmail.com
Source: Natasha A. Frost, PhD, Judith Greene, and Kevin Pranis, Hard Hit: The Growth in the Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004,Institute on Women & Criminal Justice, May 2006; William J. Sabol, PhD, Todd D. Minton, and Paige M. Harrison, Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2006, Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2007.
Even the smallest donation makes a difference. The Women Behind Bars Project wants to respond promptly to requests for information, resources, books to prisoners, and speaking engagements. We're already doing a lot with very little, but we need your help.
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